Not Your Mommy
by Fire Fire Leo
Summary: Vi is finally accepted into the League of Legends, and Caitlyn starts to think she might not be too old for her precocious Enforcer anymore.
1. Chapter 1

**Not Your Mommy** by Fire Fire Leo

Vi is finally accepted into the League of Legends, and Caitlyn starts to think she might not be too old for her precocious Enforcer after all.

Warnings: F/F smut, creative license with the lore.

* * *

Chapter 1.

Caitlyn was early again. At 7 AM she was already well into the obligatory paperwork from her last several cases. Participating in the League on the weekends always put her behind. Most of the desk jockeys at the Piltover police department were just now wandering in with their doughnuts. Caitlyn pondered the case report in her hands, trying to think of a way to describe the encounter with the Westside Wingers last week. They were a gang of country ruffians, young guys, less than 25 years old, who liked to bully bar-goers and sexually harass anyone they perceived as not 'boss' enough for them – pretty much everyone. The irony was that they probably would have liked Vi if she hadn't burst in to shut down their party and destroy their hangout. It was the collateral damage that Caitlyn wasn't sure how to bury. Vi had a way of – as she liked to say, "making doors."

A sharp rap on Caitlyn's office door distracted her focus. A large stack of letters dropped through the mail slot. Caitlyn rose from her chair painfully, her rear aching and half-asleep from sitting in the same position for so long. The mail held the usual: thank-you notes, bills, death threats, a late check from the League – "Finally!" she muttered to herself – and there, a large gold envelope addressed to Vi, from the League High Panel. Caitlyn smiled, delighted, and placed the envelope on Vi's desk. Gold envelopes meant good news.

Caitlyn was rather surprised that her deputy sidled into the office moments after she had returned to her desk. Vi looked like she might have walked there in her sleep. Her pink hair was unkempt and her eyes were bloodshot, dark shadows around them. She still had that bewildered, early morning look that Caitlyn only saw on the very rare occasions when they had shared a hotel room during overnight work trips. "Morning, cupcake," said Vi hoarsely. She fell into her desk chair with a loud CLUMP. "Has the mail-." She noticed the gold envelope on her desk and her face lit up.

Caitlyn hid a smile behind her hand, almost as excited as Vi was.

Vi tore the letter open and rubbed her eyes so that she could see the delicate script properly. "Dear Officer Vi," she read aloud. "We are pleased to inform you that your letters of recommendation and initial combat test have been accepted and that, pending the formality of the final combat test before the Summoners' Panel, you have been chosen to become the next Champion in the League of Legends, for life or until retirement/removal. You must arrive at blah, blah, blah – I got in!" Vi slapped her acceptance letter down on her desk, upsetting the coffee that Caitlyn had prepared for her but catching it just in time. She took a long sip of it. "Ah, thanks, girl. I am so wiped."

"Did you eat breakfast?" asked Caitlyn skeptically. "You look kind of-,"

"—Nah," said Vi. "I just wanted to get here ASAP. I'll go swipe some doughnuts off Ezreal."

"Are you sure that's what you want? It's just going to giving you a spike in blood sugar, and if you're training for League—," Caitlyn hesitated under Vi's disgusted expression.

"Uh, yes, mom, I am quite sure that Ezreal's doughnuts are what I want to eat." She rolled her eyes and clomped out of the office more loudly even than was necessary with her big metal boots.

"—maybe we should go get some real food to celebrate," Caitlyn said, finishing her sentence in a whisper for the empty room. "Why am I so bad at this?" She shook her head and returned to her report. "7:13 PM," Caitlyn read to herself under her breath. "Announced our presence and possession of the warrant for arrest. Received no answer. Obliged to enter by force, wherein some civilian property was damaged. Perpetrators captured." There. That sounded positive, and a little bit less like, "Vi blew the place up and stole the cat." Caitlyn glanced at the fat orange feline that had made himself at home in the nest of blankets they had made for him atop the wall of filing cabinets. He looked rather pitiful with his little arm cast, but he seemed to like it here.

They split up that morning to lie in wait at the most likely locations that they thought Jinx would show up. That havoc-loving sociopath had been spotted on traffic cameras the night before, but no one on the night crew had seen or heard of any destructive activities in the city. Caitlyn was still on her guard. Based on past experiences, the sheriff believed that revealing herself on camera was Jinx's way of taunting them, right before she would blow something sky-high. Parked on the hill overlooking the business district from the north, she opened her eyes, shifting slowly across the landscape and looking for unusual flying objects.

Caitlyn touched the button for her walkie-talkie. "What does it look like, Vi?"

"Nothing so far—," came a crackly version of Vi's low-pitched voice. "This bozo went by me at 30 over so I'm working on his paperwork right now." Vi was parked on the opposite side of the valley, on high ground so that she could see the situation from the south. Jinx had always attack high-profile locations, so that was their working assumption of where she would attack today, although Caitlyn had instructed her other officers to keep their eyes open on their regular routes and to report to her immediately if they spotted Jinx.

"Alright, well, don't get distracted, Jinx is tricky," warned the sheriff.

"I won't—shit!" Vi's walkie-talkie continued to crackle though her voice broke off.

"Vi, what's going on?" Caitlyn demanded. She turned on the engine of her car, ready to switch on the lights if necessary. "Vi?"

A male voice – Torr probably, but it might have been Henry. "Sheriff, I think the deputy noticed the disturbance on 8th and Heimer. Should I pursue?"

"No," said Caitlyn, shifting into gear. "Keep watching, I'll go see what's up." She turned on her flashing lights and sped down the hill, vehicles swerving out of her way. As she turned left on Heimer Boulevard, she could hear and see the ruckus down on 8th street. Rapid-fire gunshots were blowing chinks of stone out of the walls of the Hextech Plaza, and occasional crackling thuds let Caitlyn know that Vi was already engaged. Civilians were ducking for cover and running away from the intersection, though Caitlyn noticed that many of them looked closer to exasperated than frightened.

Caitlyn pressed her walkie-talkie and said, "I need you all to cut off the exits to 8th and Heimer. I've got Heimer west, but I need a blockade." She parked her car crosswise in the street and rushed into the scene. A familiar cackling laugh came from a hovercraft swooping around the square and firing at Vi, missing spectacularly and lodging bullets in the walls of the surrounding buildings and street. Vi, who had actually worn a bullet-proof helmet for once, was hesitating, apparently having difficulty getting a lock on Jinx. Caitlyn took aim and shot at the moving target, missing by inches.

Jinx's attention shifted. "How nice of you to join us," she yelled, mimicking Caitlyn's accent. She pointed her smaller gun at Caitlyn and fired. An agonizing pain erupted in Caitlyn's shooting arm as the bullet lodged itself below her elbow.

Vi waved her huge gauntlet-laden hand, signaling for Caitlyn to fall back. She charged at Jinx, anticipating her dip in the air, and pinned her to the ground. Jinx managed to get a hand loose and had her gun in Vi's face. They appeared to be talking to each other. Vi tried to wrench her face away but Jinx kept the gun pinned to her. That was when Henry charged forward onto the scene and without a moment's hesitation, Jinx turned the gun on him and shot him in the leg. At that range she could have easily got a head shot. She wasn't shooting to kill.

Just then Ezreal sprinted onto the scene from the eastern side, and Jinx wriggled easily out of the tight, but clumsy grip of Vi's gauntlets to take off on her hovercraft, cackling. Ezreal didn't even have a chance to spar with her. Vi stood up, looking at her gauntlets with disgust and Caitlyn could tell just from her body language that she was beyond angry. She stomped toward Caitlyn's car and opened her mouth as if to say something, then just shook her head. She stooped down to look at the bullet in Caitlyn's arm.

"Did Jinx say anything to you?" asked Caitlyn, wincing slightly at the movement. Her arm was covered in blood but Vi was attempting to wipe it off. It was not a very deep wound. Once a bit cleaned off, Vi dug a cloth bandage out of the car's first aid kit and wrapped it around the wound. "Vi." Caitlyn pressed.

"No," said Vi. "Nothing important. Just her usual nonsense."

"That didn't go very well," said Caitlyn, poking experimentally at the bandage. She winced at her own touch.

Some paramedics had arrived to treat Henry, whose injuries were worse. Vi inclined her head toward them, "Get a patch-up?"

"No," said Caitlyn. "I'll be fine till we get back."

"Mmm," said Vi. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure Jinx just wanted to mess with us. She didn't break anything as far as I know." She shoved her hands back into the gauntlets that were resting against the side of the car. "See ya, boss." She ran off to her specialized motorcycle to drive it back to the station. Caitlyn drove back one-handed.

When she had her arm treated at the medical center and finally returned to her office, Vi was sitting facing away from her desk, toward the windows.

Caitlyn rapped her knuckles on Vi's desk. "Hey," she said.

"Hey." Vi swiveled around, looking sour.

"We're going to have to take a different approach," said Caitlyn, as businesslike as she could. She sat on the edge of her desk. "Meeting Jinx on her own terms isn't going to work, obviously."

"Well we can't just _not_ go after her when she's 'on her terms' or whatever," said Vi emphatically. "Like what are we supposed to do? We can't anticipate her. She doesn't _want _anything. She just wants to fuck with us – me mostly, and…" Her fists were clenched tight, shaking a bit.

"What's wrong?" said Caitlyn. "Are you sure Jinx didn't say anything?"

"Of course I am? Like, I fucking—I need to fix my hands," she rand a hand through her pink hair, sweeping it forcefully back into place. "They don't fucking work."

"I thought the League just checked them, and why are you swearing?"

"Oh my god!" Vi interrupted furiously. "I'm not sixteen anymore. I don't need you to tell me what to eat, or how to talk, or not to get distracted, ok? I know I let Jinx get away, but it's not because I was distracted, so don't even accuse me of that." Her jaw was clenched tight. "My fucking hands don't work."

Caitlyn gaped. "I wasn't going to accuse you of anything—," she said softly. "I know your hands don't work like that, that's not what they're for. If anything I should've alerted the other officers to get there faster…."

"Ok, whatever," said Vi, holding her head. "Just, please. Don't language police me, and don't tell me what to eat, okay?"

"Okay, I'm sorry," said Caitlyn, feeling defeated. The orange cat leapt down from the storage cabinet and meandered around the leg of the big sheriff's desk, then rubbing his body affectionately against Caitlyn's legs.

"You know what?" Vi rose and walked up to the desk. Caitlyn was momentarily frozen as Vi encroached upon her personal space. The hairs on her arms stood up, and she glanced out the window to steady her thoughts. "Can I do that?" Vi pointed behind Caitlyn at the incomplete case report for the encounter with Jinx.

"Oh, um," said Caitlyn. That hadn't been among the things she had been subconsciously expecting. "Sure," she said resignedly. She pushed the paperwork to her partner. "Whatever. Do it right." The edge in Caitlyn's voice was clear. Vi glanced at her icily, but Caitlyn also thought she saw a little bit of hurt in Vi's eyes. She felt stupid.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

Vi had to wake up earlier than usual the next morning. She only had a couple of outfits, and she thought her police uniform would look nicest, so that's what she wore. She downed a cup of coffee and reheated the big breakfast she had made for herself the night before so she'd have plenty of strength for her test today. Her gauntlets, which she hadn't really done anything with, were sitting in their stand beside the door and despite her frustration at their poor gripping ability yesterday, she slid them on like normal, happy to have the soft synthetic suede against her arms and the familiar cold control balls pressed against her palms. She flexed and posed in the mirror, fantasizing about her splash portrait being displayed in one of the ten screens around the Summoners' Rift arena. Her communicator device blinked that someone had left her a message. Vi clicked to read it – glowing script across the screen read: "Good luck! 3 – Caitlyn." Vi's stomached twisted uncomfortably. She rolled her eyes at herself and zipped the device into the pocket of her shield pack.

She climbed down the narrow staircase of her old brick apartment building to the parking garage in the basement where her motorcycle, fitted with extra-large handles that synced with her gauntlets. She had fixed the bike herself. The downside to riding a police-issue vehicle was that everyone slowed down around you, but the upside was that you could go as fast as you wanted. Her paperwork stowed safely in a side compartment, Vi put on her helmet (she had learned to do that the hard way last week), brought the vehicle to a rumbling first gear, and rode up the ramp to the open road above.

The drive from Piltover to the Capital, where the Institute of War hosted the League of Legends Games, was long, but faster than you would think. A broad highway through the mountains allowed high-speed travel, and the trip that used to take several days back in the time before the Techmaturgical Revolution was now about two hours. There was talk of underground trains being built between the Capital and the major counties of Valoran, but that was all theory at the moment.

Vi raced up the hill, as fast as she wanted to go, weaving in and of cars in the city until she reached the area of the road where there was never a roadblock. She zipped through the mountains, enjoying the air ripping on her skin and the curvature of the road. The image entered her mind of driving up here with Caitlyn on the back of her bike, clinging to her waist as they whipped through the mountains. The thought made her ears redden a bit. Vi sighed as she thought to herself that in all reality Caitlyn would probably tell her off for reckless driving if she were here.

Vi had completed the paperwork dealing with the disastrous flop of an operation with Jinx the previous day. She didn't know exactly why Caitlyn never let her do it normally. She suspected that Caitlyn was worried she would spell things wrong and use the wrong terms and embarrass the sheriff's office with how uneducated she was, but Vi was meticulous, and she even had Ezreal proofread it for her. Caitlyn was… she was sweet and pretty and she made Vi's heart hurt, but she wasn't always nice. Vi could almost hear her stiff upper-class accent saying, "_I didn't become the youngest sheriff of Piltover by being the nicest one in the running!" _Of course she had never said that, but Vi could imagine it.

The glimmering white stone walls of the Capital rose into sight across the plain. Vi leaned into her handlebars and gunned it, as fast as she could go. The road was straight and well-maintained here. It was an old city. It had all the modern conveniences that money could buy from Piltover, but in its essence it still looked like the capital of an ancient civilization, all white stone buildings with semicircular arches. The stone was engraved in an old language that Vi, with her exactly zero years of schooling, didn't even know the name of, let alone how to read it.

Signs in the common language pointed her toward the arena. She knew the way, having come here with Caitlyn twice before now. The winding streets were very slow, too narrow for the traffic that congested them, but Vi, checking her watch, saw that she had saved almost twenty minutes with her extra-fast driving. _What a day to be a cop,_ she thought to herself with a smirk. She had no authority here in the Capitol, but she did still have immunity from traffic violations. Actually, she wasn't sure they had any traffic rules here. Most people were still using horse-drawn wagons. The rich people certainly had cars, but the lines painted on the road were fully ignored.

Vi pulled up to the gate below the arena that led to the VIP parking. The wheezy old man who manned the gatehouse looked at her suspiciously.

"This parking garage is strictly for Champions of the League," he said sternly.

She produced her paperwork. He still didn't seem to believe her, but grudgingly opened the gate. The parking garage was swanky. Lights embedded in the unnecessarily high ceiling showed off huge sculpted columns around the place. The garage was mostly empty, but Vi felt important here, parking here by herself. Anxiety fluttered in the pit of her stomach, but she strode confidently to the Champion entrance, a large tunnel that could accommodate even champions like Cho'Gath comfortably but that dwarfed Vi. The attendant's office was set into the wall on the right side.

"Hello again Miss Vi," said the pretty young attendant with glasses and a squeaky voice. Again? Vi hadn't met her before. Her name tag said, 'Libby.' She couldn't have been much older than Vi was. Definitely chosen for her looks. "You are here for—," Libby paused, her cheeks pinkening. Apparently she didn't want to admit she didn't know what was going on today.

"My final combat test and orientation," said Vi, her voice deeper than usual, giving into temptation and leaning subtly toward Libby with her most seductive energies. She couldn't help it. It was just too easy with a shy little newbie like this girl. Libby was so delicate, she made Vi feel like she wasn't a shy little newbie herself, which she kinda was, actually.

"Right," said Libby. "Right through this door on my left, and you'll find Locker Room R at your disposal," she said with a flutter of eyelashes and a lip-biting smile.

"Thanks, sweetie," said Vi, winking at the attendant as she made a move toward the door, yanked on the doorknob, and pulled it clean off.

"Oh…" said Libby fretfully. "You have to push…." She opened the door from the inside for Vi, who trudged sheepishly inside. "I'll have Donald come fix this," Libby said to herself.

Vi rubbed her temples, in all kinds of agony. _This_ was why Caitlyn thought she was a bumbling idiot. Case in point. Locker Room R was built for a human females, big enough that all the women in the league prepped in here, probably. If she could have made it herself there would have been less purple velvet and instead there would be a workbench where she could tune up her gauntlets. Caitlyn would love this room, though. It would be weird changing in here with Caitlyn and all the other league women, wouldn't it? Vi couldn't resist a little smirk to herself.

Vi approached the mirror where there was a paper pinned up for her to see. "Please enter the arena for final combat test no later than 10 AM. It was 9:41. Vi took a sip of water from the sink, made a few faces in the mirror, double checked to make sure she was wearing everything she was supposed to wear, and then followed the labyrinth of a shower space out into the loading dock, a wedge-like space that wrapped around the arena like the underside of huge metal bleachers. You could see light through the gaps in the ceiling. There were a few people here, men in suits.

"Ah, Vi!" said a pompous fat man with an accent like Caitlyn's but more nasal. "Excellent, quite excellent. Meet your panel of Summoners." He gestured to four other men, all suited, all greasy-looking, filthy rich no doubt. Vi forced a smile, ejected her right hand from its gauntlet, and shook their hands. They looked irritable.

"Let's get on with it," said a tall, gray-haired man with a moustache. They ushered Vi into the arena, onto the spawn pad. She heard his voice just off the edge, saying, "All she does is punch things. Who's going to want to play her?" Vi inhaled loudly through her nose to drown him out. The kit crew rushed out onto the field. They swarmed around her, attaching little do-hickies to her person and checking her self-made machinery. A boy in glasses and kit-crew gear placed an earpiece behind both ears, not in them. They were taped down very tightly and felt strange, but Vi was glad she didn't have to have them _in _her ears. That was the way they used to do it, but they had problems with champions getting disoriented and dizzy.

"Alright, champion," said the boy. "You know the rules. Follow your orders immediately and correctly. Your cooldown time will take effect on the Summoner's end. Feel free to taunt for a polite audience. If you have any technical malfunctions, press the disconnect button," he gestured to a covered button on Vi's knee. "And return immediately to the spawn pad."

"Am I playing a real game?" asked Vi.

"You are playing a 1 v. 1 game," said the boy, sighing heavily as if this were too obvious. "They want to check to make sure they've powered you correctly."

"_In 30 seconds, minions spawn,_" said a mysterious woman's voice over the loudspeakers. Vi shook out her arms and legs one last time, still feeling jittery, and waited for a command. A string of purple minions emerged from the fog, and there was Sejuani, riding her massive boar, towering above Vi. Looking at those sharp tusks, Vi felt a thrill of terror that she might actually have a technical malfunction, and her point shield might stop working, and she might get gored for real.

But her point shield did work, pinging away points whenever she suffered damage, but never letting her feel more than a gentle shove or a temperature change. Just as it had been last week, it was a terrifying yet exhilarating experience to not have to _think_ about what she was doing, just to follow orders like a robot, but at the same time, she had to execute it perfectly. It was like playing an instrument in an orchestra. She couldn't get behind. It was a steady stream of commands: "Forward, forward, forward, forward, turn right, target, E-force, E-force, target, target, back, ward, to the grass, back." The Summoner sounded like a teenage boy, probably the rich kid of one of the sponsors. That's what this game was for, basically: entertaining the rich people of Valoran. Anybody could watch, but it took a lot of money to be able to sponsor a champion and call the shots for him or her or …it.

The Summoners they were using for this match obviously knew what they were doing. Vi had pounded Sejuani into the ground and had the satisfaction of seeing her point shield show zero health bars – _"You have slain an enemy,"_ said the loudspeaker woman's voice in her ear – about the same number of times as she herself had seen her own point shield go to zero, had collapsed on the ground, and felt the pleasant warmth of the knock-out guard preventing her from taking any more hits while she walked back to the spawn pad. Vi and Sejuani had each disabled one of each other's turrets by the time the board of Summoners ended the game.

Back behind the launch pad, the Summoners were replaying parts of the match on the big screens and taking notes. "Ah, Vi, wonderful, wonderful," said the pompous man, welcoming her back. "Ah, you are quite a mess, hmm-hmm," he said, eyeing her sweat-drenched figure. "Well. You can shower in a moment. We've made a few adjustments to your points, nothing to worry about. The point is," he gestured with both hands, "you've officially been accepted as the next League champion!" Vi grinned excitedly. "Just sign this form," he said, handing her a clipboard with a rather simple document, unlike all the qualification forms she'd had to fill out before. Vi knew what it said already. She signed her name at the bottom, dotting her 'I' with a little heart because she was feeling cheery.

When Vi ambled back into Locker Room R, she was surprised to find she was not alone. Sejuani was already in the shower – completely naked, and there were no curtains. "Uh, sorry," said Vi, averting her eyes awkwardly and claiming the shower as far away from the other champion as possible.

"You'll get used to it," said Sejuani in her low, formal voice. "When I first joined the league I tried to be the last person to shower so no one would see me, but it's just not worth it."

"I see," said Vi to the wall, trying to focus on washing herself properly when she was feeling this self-conscious.

"Plus I mean, you start to get… better acquainted with the other champions pretty quickly," said Sejuani in a suggestive tone.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, venturing a glance at Sejuani. Her figure was icy-pale and muscular. She was quite tall.

Sejuani chuckled, looking at Vi carefully. Her mouth pursed in a little half-smile. "You're cute," she said "You like girls, don't you?"

Vi felt her face flush. "That's… nobody's business," she stammered.

"Mmm, whatever," said Sejuani. Vi heard her turn off her shower. "But, you'll probably have more fun here if you just ask for what you want." She left the showers and was gone from the locker room before Vi came out.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3.

In an unused basement of the Sheriff's station, in the lowest pantry of the manor house that used to be here, was a trapdoor in the floor that was kept locked at all times. Ezreal and Caitlyn were the only ones who had keys, and that was where they were going tonight. The trapdoor was heavy. They pried it open, dust cascading over the edges, and stared into the darkness below.

"What's going to be down there?" asked Caitlyn. She was armored for combat if it should come to that.

"Hopefully, nothing," said Ezreal. "No one, I should say. The tunnels aren't a bad place." He handed her a flashlight and tapped the smaller pistol on her belt. "Have it ready, but don't get jumpy."

"I'm not jumpy!" said Caitlyn indignantly. The flashlights revealed a narrow staircase, walled on both sides. They descended as quietly as possible into the warm, inky darkness. Caitlyn kept close to Ezreal, wishing, not for the first time that day, that Vi was there. She felt deeply uncomfortable with nothing to aim at.

"I'm having the Patrol check the rest of the tunnel systems, but we already have quite a bit," said Ezreal. The staircase opened into a large passageway, and he held the lantern up to illuminate the walls and ceiling of was large enough to be a train tunnel. "Like I said, there's tagging – does it look like Jinx to you, or is there any chance it's an imitator?"

Bright pink spray-paint marred the brick walls of the tunnels nonsense scribbles, the name "Jinx" all over the place, rude sayings such as, "Piltover's Finest Muff Munchers," a few penises, and a depiction in graphic (if cartoonish) detail of Vi, completely naked, strung up by her ankles, dead, judging by the X's on her eyes, with her hands cut off. Caitlyn fixated, on this drawing, growing increasingly horrified as she thought of Jinx talking to Vi in the square yesterday, and the fact that Vi was driving home from the capital alone. "That's definitely Jinx," said Caitlyn, her voice shaking a bit. "Still no sign of Vi? This looks to me like Jinx is targeting her personally. We should—we should provide her an escort or something."

"Well—no, Caitlyn, look at this," he unfolded a miniature version of his map of the Piltover tunnel system and shined the flashlight on it for her. "The red dots are places where Jinx has tagged. Look at it!" The red dots formed an almost perfect X, with the vertex of the two lines right where they were standing, under the Sheriff's Station. "We think she's going to attack here next, we think it's a threat," he said. "We need to check around here for bombs and—,"

"But what if this is just a distraction!" Caitlyn insisted. "Vi is out there on a _motorcycle, _alone, at night. Do you understand? No roof. No walls. Nothing to protect her from bullets or poison darts, or, this—!" She gestured to Jinx's drawing. "We can't just let her—,"

Ezreal held his head. "Okay, if it would make you feel better, deploy a couple of officers to escort her. Meanwhile, we really need to check for whatever we can find."

Caitlyn sighed with resignation. She pressed the button on her walkie-talkie, and said, "Please send two cars up to the east exit to escort Officer Vi when she returns from the Capital," she said.

"Gotcher', Sheriff," said Henry's gruff voice.

Ezreal and Caitlyn scouted the area, which was more complex that it initially looked. There were back-tunnels and alleys and boxes and loose bricks and hiding-holes that had to be checked for explosives or whatever else Jinx might have planted. Caitlyn did her best with the pick and the flashlight, but Ezreal ended up having to come and check everywhere she had already looked. He had charted these tunnels, so he knew where everything was. Caitlyn couldn't have been expected to have his level of understanding of the tunnel's intricacies, but she still hated feeling like she wasn't contributing.

"I don't believe there's nothing down here," said Ezreal stubbornly. "She's gotta have something down here. Maybe not a bomb, but a stash of ammunition or something." He pressed the communicator to his own Patrol. "Guys, bring the Dragon to Tunnel CI-094, and I need three people to divert over here. We're looking for new damage."

"Jinx has never planted a bomb before... what's the Dragon?" asked Caitlyn skeptically, but she didn't have to wait long. Using Hover technology, four black-clad Patrol members whizzed into the tunnel with a huge hover lamp tethered between them. They settled it in the middle of the tunnel, then one of them took off on a hover craft.

"Guys, start checking everywhere for signs of new damage or alterations. We've already got the graffiti, but check under it." Ezreal's team started scouring the tunnel with sticks and needles and special lights that showed the brick walls in different colors.

"Your team uses hovercrafts?" Caitlyn asked. "The city never gave my officers hovercrafts."

"I know what you're thinking, and it's not the case," said Ezreal. "Jinx's hovercraft is of a completely different kind from ours. It's not Yordle-made at all."

"And she couldn't have altered it to suit her needs?"

"I suppose it's possible," said Ezreal, "but I assure you, she's not a Patrol rogue."

That thought hadn't even occurred to Caitlyn. "Alright," she said. "But if she's been into your supplies, it's possible she's down here masquerading as Patrol member. It would be impossible to tell." The Patrol dressed in black body-suits that helped them to hide from the many criminal gangs that sometimes showed up in the tunnels, avoiding any conflict that might endanger the structural integrity of the tunnels.

"You honestly think someone that crazy could effectively take on a different persona?" asked Ezreal with a laugh. "She'd give herself away in an instant."

"I think you underestimate her," said Caitlyn grimly.

Just then, Caitlyn's walkie-talkie crackled. "The gates are closing for the night, Sheriff. No sign of the Deputy."

"Damn," said Caitlyn quietly. "Ezreal, you and your team can work on this. I'm needed above ground." She handed him her flashlight, and jogged back to the staircase into the office. There was a great commotion up there as desk workers transferred thousands of case files into the armored trucks that would take them to the Archives. Every window was shut and covered so that no one on the outside could see what was going on. If Jinx really was targeting the Sheriff's station, and Caitlyn figured she must be, they needed to get everyone and everything important working in different location without Jinx finding out.

Caitlyn herself immediately went to the garage and started up one of the motorcycles. She needed to be fast. She took her communicator out of her pack and typed a quick message. "Vi, if you are not in distress, please respond ASAP." She buckled it into her belt so that she would notice immediately if Vi responded, and then took off on the bike up to the gate, which opened for her with the swipe of her badge.

Once on the street, she wasn't even sure where she was going. If Vi was already in town, she might have gone to her apartment. It was only a block and half away from the station. Caitlyn parked her bike in the alley beside the walkup apartment building where Vi lived. She raced up the stairs to the second floor and pounded on the blue door before impatiently pulling the backup key out of her pocket.

"Vi?" she called into the darkness of the apartment, but she already knew her partner wasn't there. The gauntlet-stand beside the door was empty. "Damn," she said to herself, and returned to the street. She clenched her fists, wanting to do something but unsure where to go. The gate? It was closed by now, too late. She might still be out on the highway – in that case, she'd have to come in by the north entrance to the city. It was the only gate that was open around the clock. She sped up and down the hills of the city, taking advantage of her immunity from traffic laws like never before. It was like Jinx's drawing was seared into her eyes and she couldn't slow down if she wanted to. She needed to find Vi.

A crackle in her walkie-talkie. "Sheriff," said Henry, "the Deputy has arrived at the station." At almost the same time, the communicator on her belt vibrated and a message read, "Distress? I'm not in distress, where are you?" Caitlyn could almost physically feel the anxiety ebbing away from her chest, but she felt just as stupid as she felt relieved. She shook her head and turned around, taking the shortest route back to the station.

The stir had greatly diminished when she returned up the stairs from the garage. Most of the staff was done relocating and had gone home. Seeing no one in the commons, Caitlyn went upstairs to check that her own office was cleaned out properly. She saw through a gap in the open door that Vi was sitting inside, hunched over something on her desk. Caitlyn knocked lightly on the open door and walked inside.

Vi nodded in greeting, wordlessly.

"How did it go at the Capital?" Caitlyn asked. She sat on an overturned wooden crate beside Vi's desk. Vi looked exhausted, her eyes drooping and her whole person looking diminished. "Normally you won't have to drive back after a fight," Caitlyn said, when Vi didn't respond. "They have dormitories up there for the champions."

Vi glanced at Caitlyn with a curious expression. "It was okay," she said, dropping her head onto the table. "I had to fight Sejuani. It was fun."

Caitlyn was tempted to reach out and rub her head, running her fingers through Vi's messy pink hair, but she resisted. "Is that all you did?" she asked. "Just a 1 v. 1?"

Vi's eyes went up to Caitlyn's face again, with that same curious expression. "Yeah," she said. "And one of the Summoners gave me a little tour afterwards."

"So I guess we'll all go up together this weekend," said Caitlyn. "That will be fun. You, me, Jayce, and Ezreal."

Vi propped herself back up. "Are you sure that's a good idea? With Jinx running around? Henry told me you sent an escort, but I missed it."

Caitlyn blushed. "Yes, I did," she said quietly.

"What's up?" asked Vi, looking perplexed.

"Oh, I just thought you might… think I was being a mother hen, or something like that," said Caitlyn. "Ow!" She had swiped her hand on the wooden crate, and now a rather large splinter was stuck in her finger.

Vi gestured for Caitlyn to give her the hand. She fiddled with the splinter for a moment, then, to Caitlyn's surprise, she put the finger in her mouth, massaging the splintered area with her tongue till she got a good grip on it with her teeth, and pulled it out. "There you go, cupcake," she said, returning Caitlyn's hand. There was a brief silence, and then Vi made that strange expression again. "Cait, can I ask you something?"

"What kind of thing?" asked Caitlyn suspiciously.

"About something Sejuani said today."

Panic and dread overtook Caitlyn's body. Had Sejuani told Vi that...? She tried to put on a smile and change the subject. "Vi, yesterday, you didn't want me to act like your mum, and now you want me to give you advice on personal issues?"

Vi blushed. "Who said it was a personal issue?"

"Well, whatever Sejuani said, she was probably exaggerating," Caitlyn snapped. She stood up and began putting her personal affects in the wooden crate she had been sitting on, hoping that through force of will she could make the conversation end.

Vi looked confused. "Okay…? I didn't even tell you what she said."

"I don't want to hear what she said!" Caitlyn insisted. "I know the kind of things Sejuani says. Believe me. I know."

"So, you know her pretty well, eh?" asked Vi, also standing up and getting her things together.

"Yes," Caitlyn confirmed. "I know her pretty well."

"Right, well," Vi slapped Caitlyn on the shoulder. "We better get out of here before that blue-haired freak pops a cap in our asses."

"Wouldn't want to ruin our arses," Caitlyn agreed.


	4. Chapter 4

_Sorry for the delay! Computer got busted and I had to basically rewrite this and type it up at the library boo hoo poor me excuse excuse. Also to the concerned anon, I am not currently planning on writing any orgy scenes. ;) - FFL_

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Chapter 4.

That night Vi slept on a table in the board room of an empty office building across the street from the station. It was cold and drafty, all brick and gappy wooden doors. Nonetheless, Vi was exhausted and slept like a log. The soreness from her match was starting to hit her. How did Caitlyn and all them do multiple matches every weekend? She had thought she was in shape, damn. Many others had come into the designated quiet zone with her, but if Caitlyn had ever come in to get some sleep, Vi had missed it.

The next morning, they were ready. They finally had a plan. The stakeout was elaborate: from what Vi gathered, the Patrol was lurking in the tunnels, in case Jinx attacked from below, while the Sheriff's people were keeping an eye from the sky on the whole city. Caitlyn wasn't convinced the station was really even a target. They all went out in turns before the sun was up.

Vi's post was on the roof of the office building itself, looking west, lurking beside a crate turned on its side. She could crawl inside and pull a tarp over herself is she thought she was going to be spotted.

She and Caitlyn had argued earlier on what their strategy would be once Jinx was in sight.

"You catch her, and then you back off, and I'll net her," Caitlyn had suggested.

"Back off?" Vi had said. "Are you crazy? Net us both while I've got her down, and that way she won't dematerialize like last time."

"If you can get her adequately stunned, she won't be able to-"

"Don't worry about it, Cait," Vi had said. Caitlyn had rolled her eyes like Vi was back on the whole _don't tell me what to do _thing, which Caitlyn had apparently misunderstood on an epic scale. Treating Vi like a bratty teenager was possibly even _more_ annoying than telling her what to eat and all that. Vi understood perfectly what it meant to look out for someone without being their mom. Isn't that what she did everyday?

"Symbiosis," Vi said to herself, relishing the 'S's in the word. Ezreal had taught it to her a while back. She kept her binoculars trained on the street below, trying to ignore the cold ache in her elbows, propped on the icy stone ledge of the roof. It was already nearly noon, six hours of the same dizzying activity. She would check the intersection at 12th, then 13th, then 14th, and repeat. First she would check at ground level, then she would look around at the airways and windows. "Symbiosis," she repeated softly.

She hazarded a glance at Caitlyn, crouched at her post in the opposite corner. It was a good thing she wore shorts under that tiny uniform skirt, on her knees like that. Vi had a great view. She bit a little smile off her face and returned to her scanning. Nothing, no disturbances.

But down on ground level, she _did _see something. Someone with blue hair, sitting on a sidewalk bench outside the flower-shop, some tulips across her lap. She didn't have Jinx's signature braids, and it wasn't _unheard-of_ in Piltover to have blue hair, certainly there were more than one but... the combat boots and the wiry frame.

Vi pressed her button and said softly, "I need another set of eyes here on Brews between 12th and 13th."

Vi heard a shuffle as Caitlyn army-crawled toward her. She peered over the ledge with her binoculars.

"In the pink shirt," Vi whispered.

Caitlyn let out a controlled breath. "It does look a bit like her," she whispered. She pressed her communicator button and said, "Eyes out the window on Brews between 12th and 13th, girl on the bench, do we get a positive I.D.?" She looked back down. "But why is she buying flowers?" she wondered out loud.

"I don't kn-oh, shit."

The blue haired woman had suddenly looked directly up at them, directly at their double binoculars, flashing a wicked smile and magenta eyes. She made her hands into the shape of a heart and held it up for them.

They had ducked quickly, but not quickly enough.

"She's seen us, don't hesitate," said Caitlyn in Vi's ear.

"I can't jump from here, I'll break my legs!" Vi protested in a panic. It was coming back to her, the feeling like she had no control over the situation. She _hated _Jinx. "Shit, where did she go?"

Jinx had disappeared.

"We've been sighted," Caitlyn said into her microphone. She stood up. No good hiding now, apparently. "All ready for combat. The target is in civilian clothing."

"Boss-?" came Henry's crackling voice, but whatever he had been about to say was drowned out by a BOOM and the crackle of falling rubble. Vi and Caitlyn rushed to the front of the building, in time to see their personal office reduced to a smoldering black crater.

"Shit!" Vi shouted. "Goddamn it! Come out, you little weasel! Fucking psycho, just let me hit you, goddamn it..." She slammed her hand down on the ledge, trying to hear or see Jinx somewhere.

"She might have planted the bomb," Caitlyn suggested, but she was wrong.

Jinx swooped around the corner, firing into the windows of the office building below them. Vi didn't hesitate. She locked on, pounced on Jinx like a cat, catching her and crushing her to the ground. And her ankle. She might have crushed her own ankle.

Vi didn't wait for her to say anything, but clawed at her weapons, tossing the fish-gun and little gun and little clipper-clapper things as far away from Jinx as possible. Jinx wriggled violently as Vi struggled to disarm her by batting clumsily at the ammunition and knives held in Jinx's many belts.

"Oh, Fathands!" shrieked Jinx lasciviously. "My daddy's gonna kill you! Ah, ah..." She moaned with mock pleasure and ground her pelvis into Vi's armored thigh. "Mmm... harder, fatty fat! Oh, ah, Hatlady's gonna be jealous now, isn't she? Mmm..."

Caitlyn hadn't launched a net yet. Vi glanced around and saw her on the sidewalk, pointing her launcher at the two of them, holding fire.

"Don't look at her!" Jinx whined. "I thought we were girlfriends now. I brought you flowers!" She gestured vaguely at the bouquet of charred tulips.

"Shut the _fuck_ up," Vi snarled. She pulled Jinx unceremoniously to her feet and flung her in Caitlyn's direction.

_Pop!_ Jinx collapsed on the ground, caught directly in Caityln's net. The other officers swooped in to restrain her and take her to the station's holding cells to await conviction.

Vi limped back to Caitlyn's side of the street, strongly favoring her her untwisted ankle. It wasn't broken, but it didn't feel _good_. "You should have just netted us both," Vi said.

Caitlyn looked at the ground. "Sorry, I just couldn't," she said.

Vi inhaled the fresh spring air laced with burning rubble. "Well that was quick," she observed. "It was almost like she got caught on purpose, I mean..."

"What did she say to you?" Caitlyn demanded. "When you had her on the ground, I saw her talking."

"I don't remember," Vi lied. She moved toward the door to go back in to the office building. Caitlyn followed. "She was just taunting me I guess." The two of them walked back upstairs to collect their essentials from the board room - the lift cage was turned off, so they had to use the narrow brick stairwell.

"Cait," said Vi, pausing on the steps. She wasn't sure what she wanted to say in that moment but-, "We had good teamwork back there, right?"

"Yes, I think so," said Caitlyn with a curious half-smile. She fidgeted with the sunglasses hooked on the front of her shirt. "Everything alright?" she asked, so quietly that Vi couldn't have heard it from a foot further away.

Vi released her right gauntlet and scratched her neck where her uniform was itching her. She averted her eyes. "Does everyone think I'm like a lesbian or something?" she asked awkwardly.

Caitlyn paused. She raised a hand to her mouth and chewed thoughtfully on one of her fingernails. She kept eye contact with Vi, (Vi's stomach flip-flopped), but she seemed anxious for some reason. "I don't know," she whispered. "I mean... I sometimes think some of them think we're," she made a little hand gesture between them, rolling her eyes and sniffing awkwardly.

"Weird," said Vi, though her whole body deflated a bit at Caitlyn's dismissal of the idea.

"Isn't it?" said Caitlyn, chuckling nervously. "I mean, I'm way too old for you." They heard some voices at the foot of the stairs and silently agreed to resume walking up.

"Seriously!" said Vi. "You'd be such a cougar," she teased, elbowing Caitlyn in the ribs.

"Ow!" Caitlyn whined, rubbing her ribs dramatically.

"Oh sorry, Grammy," said Vi with mock concern. "Did I break your frail, fragile ribs? Here, let me just-," and she scooped Caitlyn up and over her shoulder, carrying her light frame easily up the stairs.

"Oh my god, put me down," Caitlyn said, laughing. She slapped at Vi's back.

"What, afraid they're gonna see your panties? What are these, hmm?" With hands preoccupied and gauntlet-laiden, Vi nipped with her teeth at the hem of Caitlyn's blue spandex, which were conveniently close to her mouth.

"Holy shit, oh my god!" Caitlyn scrambled out of Vi's grasp, still laughing. Her face was magenta and she was trying to hide a smile.

"Mm, you see?" said Vi smugly. "You may be too old for me, but I'm way too strong for you."

"Oh, shut it," said Caitlyn. They had reached the floor where they were all camped out. "Now you've got to behave," she said, pointing a finger in Vi's face.

Vi made her best _deeply-hurt _face. "I always behave, cupcake!" she whined.

"Ah, so that just now was behaving, was it?"

"Of course," Vi agreed. "I was helping an old lady up the stairs! How kind of me, right?"

Caitlyn pinched Vi in the bare midriff and they entered the board room together, repressing smiles like they had a secret.


End file.
